Dearest Anna: A Love Story

by Carol Allis

“Before my grandmother, there was Anna.” So begins the true story of a family secret, a trunkful of hidden letters, and a love story buried away for almost a century. In 1894 Roy and Anna graduated from high school and began writing hundreds of love letters to each other until 1898, when Anna died, suddenly and tragically. Roy was devastated. Even after he married, he grieved every year on the anniversary of Anna’s death. The letters lay hidden for decades, until his granddaughter brought them out of the shadows. Who was Anna – the woman Roy loved so deeply that he mourned her even after his 63-year marriage to someone else? This is Anna and Roy’s story – a snapshot in time in the waning days of the Gilded Age; a love story for the ages. In Anna’s “We will write as often as we must, for we are never going to be tired of each other if we live a thousand years.”

769 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 8, 2019

Reviews

[Peter J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it! What a marvelous experience this book is! Author Allis discovered a cedar chest full of love letters, hidden for a century, between her grandfather and his high school sweetheart Anna. Her brilliantly edited version of Anna and Roy's letters not only tells a haunting and riveting story of their intellectual and emotional relationship but also captures the social history of everyday life in small town (and Twin Cities) Minnesota in the 1890s. Few readers will escape tears at the ending.